Poem Beginning I Must Go Down to the Sea Again

Tennyson's "Crossing the Bar" was yesterday's poem selection. Its primary image is of sailing on the ocean; its main theme is of dealing with death. Today's poem choice could, of form, go either way. I considered John Donne's "Death Exist Non Proud", another of my favorite poems from teenage years. I quite accidentally memorized the first 2 lines all those years ago, and I accept them yet: "Decease be not proud, though some have chosen thee/mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so." Instead, I decided to go with something sea-related. And 3 poems came to mind at once, then hither is the ane that sang loudest to me this morning (perhaps because docstymie posted it just the other day):

Ocean-Fever

past John Masefield

I must downwardly to the seas again, to the alone sea and the sky,
And all I enquire is a tall send and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the air current's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face and a grey dawn breaking.

I must down to the seas again, for the phone call of the running tide
Is a wild telephone call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy 24-hour interval with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the body of water-gulls crying.

I must downwards to the seas once more to the vagrant gypsy life.
To the gull's way and the whale's fashion where the wind'south like a whetted pocketknife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing boyfriend-rover,
And repose slumber and a sweet dream when the long play a trick on'due south* over.

*trick: a plow at the send's wheel

Start upward, the story. The primary reason I know and love this poem is that my maternal grandmother had memorized information technology as a school girl in the early 1900s. She learned it in the form that it's printed hither, as "I must down to the seas once again", and because I learnt information technology that manner also, I've put that version (which comes from the first printed edition of the poem) hither. You should know that it'southward oftentimes printed as "I must go down to the ocean once more", and there'due south a recording of Masefield chanting his piece of work in which he quite clearly uses the discussion "get" throughout (Annotation - someone has "animated" a portrait of Masefield to accompany the text, which is mildly disturbing, but y'all can listen to Masefield'southward 1941 recitation of his poem this way). I accept even so kept with the version I associate with my grandmother. Just so you know.

The poem is written to be read or performed aloud, and information technology is essentially in a version of heptameter, which is to say that it uses accentual metre and has seven stressed syllables per line. Each line has a pause (actual or unsaid) roughly in the middle, with four stressed syllables in the start office of the line, and 3 in the second role. So, "I must DOWN to the SEAS again,/ to the LONEly Ocean and the SKY//and ALL i Inquire is a TALL Ship/ and a STAR to STEER her BY" gives you lot an idea what I'1000 on about, I think. I added a slash to evidence where the break (real or implied) falls mid-line, and the double slash is the actual line intermission. Capitalized words get emphasis.

The lines do not fit into a specific, stock-still metre, instead mixing iambs and spondees and dactyls and all way of other technically-named anxiety in order to accomplish a rolling sort of experience throughout the lines. In addition to the metre, the poem is written in rhymed couplets (AABB CCDD EEFF), and it uses a lot of ingemination and assonance. For instance, look at the second and third lines of the verse form for the way he uses multiple types of alliteration within his lines: "And all I ask is a tall ship and the st ardue south to st eer her by/And the w heel's kick and the w ind's song and the w hite sail's shaking". (Sorry if I confused you with so many italics - it'southward just that Masefield has deliberately echoed repeated sounds throughout his lines, and sometimes they come up in a row, and sometimes they interlock.) He uses assonance (repetition of similar vowel sounds) also. The utilise of alliteration and assonance is decidedly witting, and lends itself to memorization and recitation.

Read on a literal level, the poem is about a yearning for adventure, or a form of wanderlust. The speaker wants to be on lath a ship, have his turn at the captain, and earn a skilful night's sleep. On a metaphorical level, the verse form is often read to mean that the speaker wants to lead a meaningful life, in which case the final line ("And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick'southward over") is read as referring to death. I think it not unfair to read it as a deliberate reference to Hamlet and his soliloquy in Act 3, sc. 1, by the way ("to slumber: perchance to dream").

Masefield set to body of water at the age of 15, and wrote quite a number of poems well-nigh sailors and the sea. "Ocean-Fever" beginning appeared in impress in 1902 in a collection entitled Table salt-Water Ballads. He became Poet Laureate of England in 1930, and served in that position until his death in 1967. In 2005, "Sea-Fever" was selected as the favorite sea poem in U.k. by Magma mag. It was the winner by "a nautical mile."

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Source: https://kellyrfineman.livejournal.com/406114.html

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